Goodnight from Montreux...

Its been another memorable weekend of competition here at the Swiss National Championships — topped by some quite remarkable own-choice selection performances in the Excellence Division.

Our congratulations go to Valaisia Brass Band and to all the Division champions — all were most worthy of their accolades.

Our thanks also to the Swiss Brass Band Association for their wonderful hospitality — it really is appreciated.

That's it for us — just time to get a few more images up on the site before a quick sip of the local wine before we head for bed.

Result:

Excellence Division:

Stravinski Auditorium
Set Work: Paul Holland, Bert Appermont, Thierry Deleruyelle
Own Choice: Adjudicators: David Thornton, Chris Wormald, Andrew Duncan

Set Work/Own Choice = Total

1. Valaisia Brass Band (Arsene Duc): 1 + 2 = 3*
2. Brass Band Burgermusik Luzern (Michael Bach): 2 + 1 = 3
3. Brass Band 13 Etoiles A (Frederic Theodoloz): 3 + 3 = 6
4. Liberty Brass Band Ostschweiz (Stefan Roth): 5 + 7 = 12*
5. Brass Band Fribourg A (Maurice Donnet-Monay): 6 + 6 = 12
6. Ensemble de Cuivres Valaisan (Francois Roh): 4 + 10 = 14*
7. Ensemble de Cuivres Melodia A (Vincent Baroni): 9 + 5 = 14
8. Brass Band Berner Oberland (Corsin Tuor): 10 + 4 = 14
9. Oberaargauer Brass Band OBB (Christoph Luchsinger): 7 + 8 = 15
10. Ensemble de Cuivres Jurassien A (Blaise Heritier): 8 + 9 = 17

Best Soloist (Own Choice): Eb tuba (Brass Band Berner Oberland)
Best Euphonium: Euphonium (Treize Etoiles)

* Set Work placing takes precedent

Result:

First Division:

Adjudicators: Bert Appermont, Paul Holland, Thierry Deleruelle
Stravinski Auditorium
Test Piece: Tallis Variations (Philip Sparke)

1. BML Talents (Patrick Ottiger) — 95*
2. Brass Band Kirchenmusik Fluhli (Armin Renggli) — 94*
3. Brass Band RosAlp (David Bonvin) — 93
4. Brass Band MG Reiden (Roland Froscher) — 92
5. Brass Band 13 Etoiles Formation B (Eric Fournier) — 91
6. Brass Band Lotschental (Aldo Werlen) — 90
7. Musikgesellschaft Risch-Rotkreuz (Adrian Schneider) — 89
8. Universal Brass Band Wil (Gian Stecher) — 88
9. Brass Band 43 (Olivier Neuhaus) — 87
10. Ensemble de Cuivres Ambitus (Gilles Rocha) — 86
11. Oberwalliser Brass Band (Lionel Fumeaux) — 85
12. Feldmusik Knutwil (Enrico Calzaferri) — 84
13. Brass Band Breitenbach (Reto Naf) — 83
14. Ensemble de Cuivres la Covatte (Boris Oppliger) — 82
15. Brass Band Uri (Markus Steimen) — 81

* Promoted to Elite Division
Best Principal Cornet: Brass Band RosAlp

Final round up and overall prediction

There has been some truly world class playing on show here today — not all — but the very best inhabited the rarest levels of the competitive stratosphere.

It was led today by a simple awesome display by Valaisia — right back to their very, very best on a work of masterful scope and intent. Close behind for us is Luzern on a work of such complex colour and timbres, whilst Fribourg once again impressed with their all round abilities.

13 Etoiles put in a cracker to close, to just pip Melodia and BBO for us today.

4BR Own Choice Prediction:
1. Valaisia
2. Burgermusik Luzern
3. Fribourg
4. 13 Etoiles
5. Melodia
6. Brass Band Berner Oberland

4BR Set- Work Prediction:
1. Burgermusik Luzern
2. Fribourg
3. 13 Etoiles
4. Valaisia
5. Valaisian
6. Brass Band Berner Oberland

Adding all the sums together over the two days and we go for a top-six of.... Luzern doing enough to claim the title from Fribourg, Valaisia, 13 Etoiles, Valaisian and Berner Oberland with Melodia as our dark horse.

4BR Overall Prediction:

1. Brass Band Burgermusik Luzern
2. Brass Band Fribourg
3. Valaisia Brass Band
4. 13 Etoiles
5. Brass Band Valaisian
6. Brass Band Berner Oberland

Dark Horse: Melodia Brass Band

Excellence Division:

10. Brass Band 13 Etoiles A (Frederic Theodoloz)

Trance (Thomas Doss)

The work is based on JS Bach's hymn 'Wie schon leuchtet der Abendstern' (How beautifully the morning star shines).

It starts hesitantly — reminiscent of a music box that is repeatedly interrupted, although in this case, by the doubts and fears of a reluctant mother — one whose unborn baby screams silently to her from within the womb.

Only she can hear its voice and is terrified by the prospect of its birth. In return, the unborn child feels these doubts and its mother's trepidation but continues to try and bond with her.

Gradually, with every single psychosomatic scream, a relationship starts to build as she instinctively perceives another human life inextricably linked to her own — one with an increasing heartbeat and sense of reality.

While dancing faster and faster into a trance she imagines how her child might grow from infant to an adult human being...or not... depending on the decision she has to make that will or will not result in its birth...

Iwan Fox

We round off the contest with a cracking rendition of the psychosomatic inspired 'Trance' — a musical 'Rosemary's Baby' meets Damien from 'The Omen'.

It's played with dark edged malevolence as well as tender confusion by a band on fine form — led by the MD who gives the music time to find its spooky groove. There is something very chilling about the lonely sound of a child's music box on a loop.

The final, frenetic trance inspired dance sequence is so cunningly paced — drawing energy and intensity from its surroundings all the way to the ferocious ending.

Excellence Division:

9. Brass Band Burgermusik Luzern (Michael Bach)

Cataclysms (Roland Szentpali)

Written in 2019, 'Cataclysms' is the latest work from the Hungarian tuba virtuoso and composer.

It is inspired by a trio of global destructive phenomena — the natural disasters that befall humanity from tsunamis, tornados and volcanic eruptions.

It opens with a bucolic introduction evoking a 'calm coast' blissfully unaware of the terror that will soon engulf it.

The evocative writing draws on the timeline that follows — an 'open sea', 'wind and waves', 'earthquake in the deep', 'decrease in water' and 'tidal waves' — the mounting tensions that prelude the cataclysmic release of natural forces — the eventual return to the 'calm coast' revealing the trail of devastation.

The second movement again evokes a timeline of disaster — 'hot weather', 'three storms', 'supercell' and 'hitting the ground' as a huge tornado stack strikes. The aftermath once more reveals a landscape denuded of life — homes blown apart like confetti in the wind.

The final section starts as a meditative tribute to the natural glories of mother earth — 'soil, trees trees, flowers, animals'.

The paradise is soon disturbed rumbling deep in the earth's core — 'tectonic activities' that soon shake the earth below the feet, exploding in eruption — the molten magma slowly but inextricably destroying everything in its path — man impotent to stop the forces of nature.

The final coda poses the question of whether we are to blame — climate change now creating a sense of natural imbalance that the earth itself is trying to redress.

Iwan Fox

We have been treated to some of the rarest musical treats today — and by heck this was one of them.

Such a descriptive piece of writing with a kaleidoscopic variance of colours and textures to the tonal (vocal included) palette of the score — hints of Ravel and Wagner in the opening as the tsunami grew in force and intensity, leaving a bucolic coastline destroyed in its wake.

The sheer windswept force of the tornado, forming, hitting and then passing overhead was terrifying.

If that blew you off your feet — so did the finale, but in a different way. The scope of the layered scoring was immense and the band did it full justice — each line so well delineated and balanced.

The fearsome mechanical tonality to close, driven like a bulldozer through your senses, was fantastic.

Bravo perc, bravo band, bravo composer, bravo MD. That may just have captured the title — and if so deservedly so.

Excellence Division:

8. Liberty Brass Band Ostschweiz (Stefan Roth)

REM-scapes (Thomas Doss)

The familiar strains of Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata' emerge through the subterranean rumblings of the opening to a work inspired by the nebulous subconscious world of deep sleep and half sleep and its effects on the mind.

It's a disturbing look into the darker recesses of the mind — one that has been explored in the past by the likes of Freud, William Blake and others with a blackness the colour of pitch tar. Any redemption on awakening is hard to find after a night like this.

Into the sweet dreams and comforting arms of Morpheus — this is anything but...

Everything here is distorted — the eyes flickering under their lids as the images are charged through the synapses of the brain, sounds like an old gramophone record playing on a demonic loop in the upstairs room at the Bates Motel...

The tension is built as the conscious and subconscious battle against eachother to either awaken or fall further into the abyss..

Iwan Fox

Not quite the stuff to conjure up the scariest dreams out of the Exorcist perhaps, but enough to give a few sleepless nights with the dark edged travelogue into the subconscious netherworld.

Saying that, it did take a bit of time to nod off into dreamland — just an extra strength Mogadon needed to up the pace. When the REM patterns emerged they were flickering and repetitive aided by the familiar Doss signature marks.

Plenty of neatly packaged ensemble playing backed by fine perc as the battle of wills emerged with hints of Wagner and funkmeister extravagant troms. Then it hit its Moonlight straps all the way to a formidable close — as if the band were falling deeper and deeper into the nocturnal grave... Bravo.

Excellence Division:

7. Oberaargauer Brass Band OBB (Christoph Luchsinger)

Concerto for Brass Band (Roland Szentpali)

'Concerto for Brass Band' was written in 2019 by the Hungarian composer and tuba virtuoso, Roland Szentpali.

It is inspired by the feelings of adventure, danger, surreal physicality and potential disaster that drive those that seek to break through different analogical versions of barriers.

The four movements chart no narrative progression, but evoke notions, inklings, observations and encounters — artistic, physical and metaphorical; from the opening 'The Sound Barrier' and following 'Hallucinations' and 'Cosmic Levitation' to the 'Nightmare and Chorale' finale.

It is a work of vivid, febrile imagination that charts elements of musicality from contemporary jazz and technical virtuosity to languid beauty and evocative textures.

Iwan Fox

Another inspired choice — with a work that certainly suited obvious ensemble and solo strengths — right from the start of the funked up trip to break through the sound barrier — although curiously not through speed or volume.

It was more to do with the way your internal organs must vibrate like a jelly on a washing machine on a rapid wash...

The sop led hallucinations to follow had a touch of the magic mushrooms about it and there was an airy feel to the levitation interlude too.

Not quite bowels of Beelzebub nightmare stuff to follow, but devilishly Spanish enough before we headed to a glorious chorale inspired close to round off a finely judged and executed performance.

Excellence Division:

6. Ensemble de Cuivres Melodia A (Vincent Baroni)

A Brussels Requiem (Bert Appermont)

The terrorist attacks in Brussels in 2016 shocked the world, with similar outrages in Paris, Nice and Berlin leading to an increase of fear and misunderstanding throughout Europe.

Following the attacks people asked questions of how cultures that spoke openly of tolerance and peace had apparently grown so far apart that they could no longer understand each other.

Bert Appermont's composition is a personal tribute to the victims of the attacks — although it does not seek to describe what happened in Brussels in a narrative form.

Instead it sets out to reflect on the experience and to express the complex emotions triggered by the terrible events.

The four movements are linked by the underlying children's song 'Au Claire de la Lune', which in the first movement is used as a cipher for the loss of innocence. It then moves through a militaristic second section of brutal disturbance as hell descends before a minor coloured chorale leads into a paean of grief and pain.

The works closes in hopefulness however; a search for meaning, optimism and even childlike fun as the nursery tune is recalled before a fierce, passionate climax.

Iwan Fox

What an inspired choice by the MD for his band — a somewhat familiar blockbuster nowadays, but given new life by a sparkling interpretation — backed by fizzing delivery all around the stands.

The contrast shown in the chorale was so touchingly done — sad and tender, but not a hint of saccharin coated false emotion.

There was also plenty of stunning solo playing on show — from trom, horn and cornet, but the xylo player must have been drinking pints of Red Bull and caffeine — he was incredible. What a player.

The lift of the spirit to close was handled so adroitly — carefully calibrated in dynamic, tempi and effect — all the way to end. A little bit of bit of Brussels brilliance that.

Excellence Division:

5. Ensemble de Cuivres Jurassien A (Blaise Heritier)

Looking Back (Tom Davoren)

Tom Davoren's work reflects on a trend that emerged in the early 1990s for the assimilation and reinvention of existing iconic musical repertoire from different sources (mostly, but not exclusively orchestral) into something new and original for brass band contests.

'Looking Back' offers an inventive reappraisal of this phenomenon, although his reality is something very different — a symbolic portrayal of emotions of a journey to create something original by addressing self-doubt, transformation, fear and growing confidence.

The picture is drawn out of a pleading opening statement for solo cornet and euphonium, where musical material throughout has been captured from the hook of one of the composer's own favourite pop songs of the 1980's.

As the emotional spirit changes so does the increasing range of colours, timbres, balance layers, rhythm complexities and dynamic nuances.

The end result is a work that realises the power of the emotions depicted, rather than a cold reflection of technical prowess.

Iwan Fox

A work of balanced ideas and ideals, rich textures and exposed linear lines — all expertly expressed without reaching into pastiche by the composer to evoke the emotions sought.

Plenty of fine solo and ensemble playing on show in each section too — although the demanding opening took a little time to settle with lyrical certainty.

Thereafter it built in tension and drama, with those little ciphers of past quotation marks sitting in the air and plucked out by the MD with neat precision.

The passion really emerged in the final section — gloriously so to close.